Re: What's the economy, Papa?

[Ed Weick]

The economy of any major country is a very large thing, with billions of decisions and transactions going on all of the time.  Transactions are, of course, real, but the decisions that determine those transactions tend to be subjective, affected by moods and the nuances of what people believe is happening whether it really is happening or not.  Economic institutions spin out numbers based on the relatively few things in the economy that are measurable.  The media picks these numbers up, treats them as though they were the word of some all-knowing god and very often distorts them into something they were not intended to be.   I sympathize with your call for "a workable plan", but of course that leads to the question of workable in whose eyes, to what purposes and with what horizons in mind.  And the last thing that I would want to see is plans disseminated by great orators and statesmen.  Surely we've had enough of that!   So, what do we need?  What we may have learned from the dot.com and telecom debacles is that not all that glitters is gold and that what goes up must come down.  We've learned that before but it doesn't seem to have stuck.  And, as the economy keeps demonstrating but we keep wishing away, we have to learn to live with considerable uncertainty.  Not all of us will have jobs, at least not all of the time, and we may not have the jobs we would like to have.  The economy is not nearly as generous of steady work and career choice as it was three or four decades ago.  This would suggest that, in good societies, we have to accept that we are to at least some degree our brothers' keepers.  Societies which can spend trillions of dollars chasing illusory paper wealth must surely have the resources to build social safety nets that are genuinely supportive and do not make those in need feel like pariahs.  There was considerable discussion of guaranteed annual incomes on this list some time ago.  Perhaps that should be resumed.   Whatever it is, the economy will keep chuntering along.  What we have to recognize, increasingly, is that it is not there to make a few us super-rich, but to provide support to all of us because we are all part of it.   Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax     (613)  728 9382 ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 2:54 PM Subject: Re: SA and Work in oil-rich countries If I may be so bold as to jump into this discourse.   It does seem obvious that we are on the verge of financial disaster here in the US.   There is no decent safety net to take up the slack.  As areas of the country are reeling from the collapse of the telecoms, the airways, and previously the dot. coms, one has to wonder only when, not if, the entire retail sector and housing sector will follow suit following in the footsteps of the most unlucky areas to date.   Talented folk put out of work, with negative home equity, have a difficult time relocating and many wonder why bother, since the next remote employer may soon join the list of has been financial wonders. The crisis of faith has become systemic.  The best and the brightest are finding that they are dispensible when they get a little age and bright, younger, eager replacements are waiting for jobs at a fraction of their older ,  but far from old, colleague's salaries. So doing the "right thing" ,  ie becoming educated and finding a good job,  has turned out to be a reciept for economic ruin for thousands of techies.   As long as the bottom line is the yardstick upon which all is measured,  there can never be a bit of security or safety for American families. The disillusioned are more than ready to go where angels feared to tread just a few years ago.   Many good plans could be implimented, but the propensity of the human ego to endlessly modify usually makes any workable plan impotent . We need a workable plan that can be accepted and we need some great orators and statesmen to  disseminate.   Robert